OPM director steps down after hacks affected more than 20 million
In the last year the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management has been hit by at least two separate attacks by hackers. The first one that came to light affected the info on some four million people, while another has apparently seen sensitive background check info on more than 20 million people fall into the wrong hands. While OPM director Katherine Archuleta pledged yesterday to stay on and lead efforts to secure the department’s systems, today ABC News and The Hill report Archuleta handed in her resignation to President Obama.
There were calls for the director’s resignation yesterday from both Republicans and Democrats, mostly focusing on Archuleta’s lack of tech or security experience, as well as the department’s slow response to the breaches. Katherine Archuleta was the 10th OPM director, while The Hill mentions Beth Cobert, the current deputy director for management, will take over as acting director.
Anyone who has been a federal government employee or contractor, had a background check by the government (even if you weren’t hired), is a member of the military or a veteran, or the spouse, co-habitant or minor child of any of those could be affected — check out the OPM website for more information.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is a new chapter in the series, coming to Android
As a massive fan of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale back in the day, I was super stoked when Baldur’s Gate 3 was announced back in 2002. Unfortunately, it was never meant to be. Not only did BG3 never surface, Black Isle Studios also closed its gates shortly thereafter.
For those that have been waiting patiently, you’ll be happy to know that a new Baldur’s Gate title is finally coming! Sort of. Seventeen years after the release of Baldur’s Gate we are finally seeing a new stand-alone ‘expansion’ of sorts called “Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear”.
Beamdog, the same team that brought us the enhanced editions of BG and BG2, is behind the project and plans to use the same Infinity Engine for the title. While that means the graphics and gameplay style will remain largely the same as ever, the good news is that the story and many of the characters will be brand new with the events of the game set between the original Baldur’s Gate and its sequel.
Speaking further of the storyline, Beamdog had the following to say:
The events between Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition are at last revealed in this exciting new expansion to the original game.
Though Sarevok is dead and his plan for war averted, peace eludes the citizens of Baldur’s Gate. A crusade marches in the north, seizing supplies, forcing locals into military service, and disrupting trade along the Sword Coast. A charismatic warrior known as the Shining Lady leads this army, her background shrouded in mystery. Can the rumors be true—is she, like you, the child of a god?
The closer you get to the Shining Lady, the more you realize your father, the dead Lord of Murder still casts a long shadow upon your path. Baldur’s Gate has put its faith in you, but you must determine whose interests you truly serve before you face the Shining Lady among the ruins of Dragonspear Castle.
There’s no exact word on when we can expect the new expansion game, other than later this year. Not only will it arrive to Android, but you can also expect it on PC, Mac, Linux and iOS. So how about it, excited for a new entry in the series — even if it isn’t quite the Baldur’s Gate 3 many have been hoping and waiting for all these years?
Bangalore police want to fight crime with Periscope
Periscope seems to be everywhere these days, giving folks an easy way to stream everyday life to anyone willing to watch it. For some people and organizations, including Android Authority, Periscope is a way to reach out to fans and share an inside look at events and the like. For others, Periscope is for sharing streaming images of their food, letting people watch them brush their teeth, and all other matters of, well… idiocy. For Bangalore’s police department? They are hoping it can be turned into a crime fighting tool.
Police commissioner MN Reddi says that they plan to embrace Periscope by starting small and livestreaming police press conferences to any interested in watching. Beyond this, however, the commissioner is hoping that they can eventually get to the point where willing citizens use the platform to record crimes in progress. Essentially someone at the police station would monitor these special Periscope feeds and would react to them by dispatching an officer, etc.
While an odd sounding idea, Bangalore has already had a great deal of success embracing Twitter with many residents of the city more than willing to send alerts and complaints to the police via tweets. This is just the next evolution for the city’s plans to use social media to improve their police force. Of course the idea of every citizen having the power to act as CCTV camera for catching crime might seem a little discomforting to some. Considering slow mobile broadband speeds and limited data for many smartphone users in the city, it’s also probably a little too ambitious at this point. Still, we have to commend the city’s police force for thinking outside of the box.
What do you think of the idea? A great one, a potentially over invasive one that will infringe on privacy? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Netatmo Welcome smart home camera review
The Netatmo Welcome is a connected camera that features facial recognition, adding another level of safety and security to the home. The Welcome notifies users through their app so that the homeowner knows who is home and when. The device is positioned to compete with some big players in the market, such as the recent Nest Cam upgrade and Piper. Although Netatmo’s offering doesn’t quite meet the standards of those two devices, the company still has a decent camera.
Design
Anyone that has used a Netatmo product before will see that its smart home camera fits right in. The design is very similar to the company’s other products and is kind of a symbol of the Netatmo brand. Here, we are looking at what is essentially a lightweight, tall and thin cylinder in “Champagne Gold.”
The top and bottom is accented with gold and white. Down the middle you’ll find a black stripe with the camera positioned at the top. There is a glowing red dot at night, indicating that the camera is utilizing night vision. And, actually, that red dot looks kind of creepy. It feels like an intro into a bad horror movie. During the day, though, you’ll hardly notice the Welcome is present.
Around the back you have three ports, the first being a microSD card slot. It comes with an 8GB microSD card, and you can swap it out for a larger 32GB or 64GB size which is highly recommended as the 8GB card fills up quickly. Unfortunately, in doing that, you have to reteach the camera who is who because you are also essentially swapping out its brain. That is actually kind of frustrating if you want any reliability with the Welcome. It’d be nice if there was some sort of internal storage where it kept all of its necessary information and then just wrote video to the external storage.
Below the microSD card slot is a micro-USB port and an Ethernet power. One of them will have to be plugged in for power, but the Ethernet cord is a great option if you prefer a wired connection over wireless.
Overall, the Welcome has a fairly simple and straightforward design. There’s nothing really unique going on here, but that is not a bad thing. It really is just a cylinder shaped camera.
Setup
Setup is an easy and quick process, too. Plug the Welcome into the wall, then download the companion app on your device, and it’ll quickly take you through the setup process.
Setting it up on the computer is also simple enough. Head over to Netatmo’s site, create an account, and use the Netatmo web interface to recognize your WiFi network and link the hardware with a connection. The Welcome can begin learning who you and your loved ones are. Does that sound creepy? Maybe. But that’s home security!
The tricky part in the Welcome’s setup is getting it positioned in the perfect location. You want it to always recognize who walks in the front door, realizing that members of your family are home, and sending you a notification when it does realize someone is home. That is easier said than done, though.
Software
The software is.. interesting. It works really well recognizing faces, but the biggest issue is how the “Away” feature works. The Welcome will, by default, decide no one is around if it has not spotted anyone for four hours. In other words, if you’re in your home office working for four hours, the Netatmo is going to assume that you’ve left.
In reality, the Welcome isn’t really telling you if someone is home, only if the device has seen that person recently. Another frustration I came across is that the device is great at recognizing faces, unless you come in through the door and rush to the next room. In doing that, it tends to get confused and isn’t sure who is home, signalling that the device saw an unknown person. It also doesn’t work very well at all when there’s too much sunlight, so hopefully your front door doesn’t have any windows around it.
That said, the Netatmo Welcome has essentially become a paperweight because, at this point, it’s just not useful. It features some very clever ideas that are poorly executed. Netatmo claims this is a smart home device, but it’s really not smart at all. If you want this device to make sure your kids come home on time and to warn you of strangers entering the house, this isn’t going to do it for you.
On another note, the Netatmo Welcome’s video quality was actually really good. It plays in Full HD, making every detail of what the Welcome captures crisp and clean.
Closing
The Netatmo Welcome feels like a rushed security camera in order to compete with the refresh of the Nest Cam, marketing the local storage aspect and no monthly fees, two of the small cons of its Nest competitor. But in all honesty, if you’re looking for a true smart home camera, the Nest Cam will be way more functional and practical for your security needs.
At $199, it’s difficult to decide whether the Netatmo Welcome is worth it when you could get a more all inclusive package like the Nest Cam. The Welcome does have some strong points, but it still feels like Netatmo has some work to do before this device becomes something to rave about.
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Fleksy Keyboard is having a design your own theme contest
Fleksy is having a contest where users can design their own keyboards. All you have to do is use their website to design it and submit the theme before July 17th at 5pm PST. After that they will post their favorite 15 themes and open the voting to everyone to choose the winners. The Top 5 themes will be added to the Fleksy theme store.
TIPS / INSTRUCTIONS
- You can start designing your theme by using one of Fleksy’s already existing themes on the right as a starting point.
- You can use any image you’d like as your theme’s background, as long as it’s not copyrighted material (that means no brand names, logos, known figures etc).
- You can click on the keys to see the pop tiles or use the “eye” icon to toggle three of them.
- Make sure to name your theme!
- After you’re done designing your amazing theme you can send it to Fleksy by clicking on the green button at the bottom right and filling in the form.
Happy Theme Designing!
Source: Fleksy
Come comment on this article: Fleksy Keyboard is having a design your own theme contest
New performance update comes to Verizon’s LG G3
When the Android 5.0 Lollipop update came to Verizon’s variant of the LG G3 in late March it brought an enhanced experience with a plethora of new features and Material Design. Along with that came a lot of problems such as bugs, frequent battery drain and a loss in performance. Ever since then, Verizon’s G3 owners have been posting away in the carrier’s forums pleading for an update to fix these bugs. Now it’s July, and Verizon has finally pushed out an update to help resolve these issues and add some new useful tools.
As with almost all software updates, patience is required here. You can check for the update but that really won’t force it upon the device. In any case, look for update version VS98524B or “24B” to appear in the coming days.
The software update brings changes to Bluetooth, interruptions, and advanced calling tweaks in addition to major bug and performance issues.
Source: Verizon
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Pogoplug Personal Backup: 3-Yr Subscription
Need more storage? Of course you do. With higher quality photos and videos taking up more room on your devices than ever before, and some newer handsets not having expandable memory, you may find yourself faced with the dreaded deletion debate. Well, fret no more my photogenic friend. We’ve got you covered with Pogoplug Personal Backup.
This 3-year subscription to Pogoplug provides unlimited storage and automatic backup to all of your devices. With just one click, all of your tablets, phones and computers will be synchronized and backed-up. In addition, you’ll be able to instantly stream any of your video or audio files on the fly and share with no fear of size limitations.
While you might expect to shell out hundreds of bucks for this service, AndroidGuys readers can grab this backup solution, along with some peace of mind, for just $49, today!
See more at deals.androidguys.com
The post Pogoplug Personal Backup: 3-Yr Subscription appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Note 5 to launch early, beat Apple to the punch
If you’ve been holding out for Samsung’s next Galaxy Note, but were expecting to wait until its typical launch venue at IFA in September, things may turn in your favor this year.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Samsung has decided to move up the launch of the Note 5 by several weeks, to mid-August. They state that the scheduling change is due to how close the phablet flagship unveiling would be to the refreshed iPhone launch, typically in mid-September.
It’s interesting that the iPhone launch has never stopped Samsung before, but now that Apple has a phablet to compete, Samsung may be worried about the Note 5 getting overshadowed. If Samsung can pull off an early release, they would have the time to rack up undistracted consumer attention.
Last year, the new iPhones were unveiled six days after the Note 4 was announced. Then the iPhones beat the Note 4 into stores by a few weeks. It would make sense that Samsung would not want a repeat of muddied waters, especially since Galaxy S6 sales haven’t been where they’ve wanted.
The new launch event is supposedly being planned for a major US city, which is unknown yet. Stay tuned to hear more as details develop! A lot of us play the waiting game for that device we can’t for, so it is definitely welcoming to hear when a wait won’t be as long.
The post Note 5 to launch early, beat Apple to the punch appeared first on AndroidGuys.
DVLA extends licence code lifespan to help Brits hire cars abroad
It’s not often that a government department takes on feedback and quickly makes a change to its processes, but fair play to the DVLA, it’s just done exactly that. After the agency phased out paper driving licences and asked British holidaymakers to present online codes to car hire companies instead, travellers complained that the allocated three-day window was too small. It’s only been a month, but the DVLA has revised its ruling and expanded the window to three weeks.
If your car hire code ran out under the old system, you’d need to find internet connection and request a new one, which isn’t always easy in an unfamiliar country. Alternatively, the DVLA operates a back-up telephone request service, which has its own operating hours. With a 21-day grace period, the codes will now cover longer holidays, making it easier for Brits abroad to potentially cover their travel options before they actually need them.
[Image credit: Hakan Dahlström, Flickr]
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Gov.uk
430,000 names are hurtling towards Pluto right now
Do you remember what you were doing on the internet back in 2005? No, of course you don’t–modern smartphones didn’t exist yet, YouTube was just starting out and Facebook was still just an “online college yearbook.” You might have stumbled upon a NASA webpage looking for folks to be a part of the “first mission to the last planet.” Participants had their name burned onto a CD and launched into space with the New Horizons spacecraft. Can’t remember if your moniker is among the stars? There’s an easy way to find out.
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has a name search page hidden in its communications pages. It’s function is simple: find out if your name is among one of 430,000 on their way to Pluto. If it is, NASA will award you with a numbered Participation Certificate, certifying that yes, your name is indeed copied onto a piece of outdated technology that’s literally taped to the side of a real spacecraft. Congratulations.
Didn’t manage to submit your name to NASA ten years ago? Don’t worry–you can fake it with some simple HTML edits, like me. Nobody has to know.
Filed under: Science
Via: Popular Science
Source: Johns Hopkins
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